FULLERTON : Video Sings Praises of Public Relations

Students and professors at Cal State Fullerton have produced a video that they hope will attract more young people into public relations.

Communications professor David Pincus, who advised the video project, said that many high school students have a negative perception of public relations that they don’t easily shake when they get to college.

The 18-minute video, starring students and members of local public relations firms, follows two spies as they seek to uncover the world of public relations.

The spies find that public relations requires good writing and speaking skills to represent a client to the community and shape corporations’ public identities.

Members of local public relations firms are interviewed in the video, and some are also helping to market the tape.

“It’s very hard to explain (public relations) to people,” said Linda Martin, who works for the public relations firm of Laer Pearce & Associates and is interviewed for the video.

“When you’re in advertising or journalism, everyone can relate to it,” Martin said.

“I help companies tell their story,” she said.

“Public relations has really evolved to have a counseling role and a decision-making role in organizations that it didn’t have 30 years ago,” Pincus said.

About 25 copies of the video have been sold since it became available earlier this month, he said.

Three seniors in the communications department produced the video, Pincus said. “They took it on and made it into a mini-movie,” he said proudly.

The tape is titled “Mission Improbably: The Pursuit of Public Relations.”